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Harvey's great-aunt, Cissie Barnes, sounds like 'quite a gal'. She posed for Newlyn School artist, Dod Procter, for the picture, 'Morning', which caused a bit of a stir at the time. Cissie (real-name - Sarah) was just 16 years old when she modelled for the painting, which shows her reclining on her bed having a morning snooze.

Painted in 1926, the picture was voted Picture of the Year at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1927 and was bought for the nation by the Daily Mail newspaper. It was also displayed in New York, went on tour for 2 years and became part of the Tate collection. The painting now hangs in the Tate Modern Gallery in London.

Cissie was born, and grew up, in Newlyn, Cornwall, and it's understood that Dod Procter painted her several times. I can only imagine Cissie might have enjoyed some short-term notoriety when the picture hit the headlines. Amongst the family archive is a newspaper cutting which shows a photograph of Cissie standing in one of her father's fishing vessels wearing a sou'wester hat, waterproof coat and boots. It was taken when she was 17 years old and the caption refers to Dod Procter's painting.

It's with some regret that Harvey never met, or even knew about, his great-aunt Cissie, especially as it appears she was still alive when Harvey was growing up. Even more ironic is that she resided in Plymouth in her latter years, which would have coincided with some of the years Harvey spent living in the same city.

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Elizabeth Gale was married to Samuel Hellier in Tavistock in 1815. She was most likely widowed before 1841 as she appears on the census with her grand-daughter, Sarah Hellier, and a Grace Gale, who was probably a relative but I've yet to discover who Grace was. Residing in West Street in 1841, Elizabeth and her grand-daughter lived at Ford Street Alms House in 1851 and 1861.

Elizabeth lived to be about 78 years old and was still working as a laundress 3 years before she died. She was probably born in Widecombe-in-the-Moor as stated on the 1851 census, although the 1861 census puts Tavistock as her birth place. This might easily have been an error - whoever gave the enumerator the information might have guessed or said 'Don't know' so perhaps Tavistock was chosen because this was where the family were living at the time.

I need to undertake further research to discover Elizabeth's roots but, as I don't currently have access to baptism registers for Widecombe, this will be placed on hold for the time-being.

Place names: Tavistock and Widecombe-in-the-Moor in the county of Devon.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]